Campaign to Rename Brooklyn Park for Adam Yauch Hits Hurdle

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In the wake of Adam Yauch’s tragic and untimely death from cancer, we were interested to read that a group of Brooklyn residents have started a campaign to rename a Brooklyn Heights park in his honor. However, according to the Brooklyn Paper, there’s a problem with the idea: the park in question is already named in honor of another notable Brooklyner. It commemorates one Dr Edward Robinson Squibb, a pharmaceutical manufacturer who started his first laboratory on the site in the 19th century. Squibb sounds like an interesting fellow — amongst other things, he apparently invented a method of distilling ether for use as an anesthetic, and generously gave away the process rather than patenting it — and Brooklyn councilors are proving less than receptive to the idea of removing his name from the park. We’d love to see Yauch’s legacy commemorated, but it’s unclear why something else can’t be named in honor of Yauch, rather than starting a fight over this particular location. Happily, according to the campaign’s Facebook page, organizers are already thinking about “Plan B.”